5.  The applicant was born in 1958 and lives in Paşcani.
6.  Mr Victor Iorga (V. I.), the applicant's son, was in the seventh month of his compulsory military service as a soldier when he disappeared from his military unit on 9 June 2001. On 14 June 2001 his dead body was found hanging from a tree near the military unit.
7.  A criminal investigation (no. 2001019048) was initiated on the same day. According to documents submitted by the Government, during the investigation numerous witnesses were heard and several expert reports were made, including an autopsy, a post-mortem psychiatric report and a report on the samples of various substances gathered from the scene of the event. On 28 December 2001 a military prosecutor decided to discontinue the investigation into the case, finding that V. I. had committed suicide. The applicant considered that her son had been murdered and that the authorities were trying to cover up the case.
8.  At the applicant's request, on 6 February 2002 she was for the first time given access to the materials in the file. On 15 August 2002 she challenged in court the decision of 28 December 2001.
9.  On 7 November 2002 the Buiucani District Court rejected the applicant's challenge to the decision of 28 December 2001 as lodged out of time. The applicant appealed, claiming that she had never received a summons to the hearing of 7 November 2002.
10.  On 11 February 2003 the Chişinău Regional Court ordered a re-examination of the complaint by the Buiucani District Court. In her complaint, the applicant noted that the passage of time made increasingly irrelevant an exhumation of the body in order to carry out another autopsy to verify the cause of her son's death. She also noted that she was still unsure whether she had seen her son's body when she had been asked to verify the identity of the body found on 14 June 2001. She mentioned the absence of a number of marks which her son had had on his body and that she had been pressured into saying that it was her son's body. She also mentioned that her son had complained of violence among the soldiers. It appears that the applicant's complaint was forwarded to the Buiucani District Court. According to the applicant, she was presented with a corpse in an advanced state of decomposition which she was not sure to have identified as her son. Moreover, the photos of the corpse suggested that the victim had received a blow to the head and revealed two strangulation marks, suggesting that he had been hanged from the tree after being asphyxiated. She expressed her doubts to the authorities and asked for an exhumation in order to verify that information, but this was refused.
11.  On 24 April 2003 the Buiucani District Court found that, even though many investigative measures had been carried out, including several expert reports, there had been shortcomings in the investigation. In particular, V. I.'s interests had not been represented, the applicant having been treated only as a witness and not as the victim's representative as required by law. That omission had prevented the applicant from exercising her procedural rights under Article 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (“the CCP”, see paragraph 18 below), taking into account that she had a number of objections to the manner in which the investigation had been carried out. The applicant's rights had not been explained to her by the investigators, in violation of Article 51 CCP (see paragraph 18 below). The court found that, contrary to legal requirements, the investigation had not analysed fully and objectively the circumstances of the case. The court also found a discrepancy between the post-mortem psychiatric expert report, which apparently found that V. I. had had suicidal tendencies, and the decision taken only several months earlier by the medical commission finding him fit for military service and not disclosing any concerns about his psychological health. The court annulled the decision of 28 December 2001 and ordered a further investigation by the military prosecutor's office.
12.  An appeal by the prosecutor against the decision of 24 April 2003 was dismissed by the Chişinău Regional Court on 21 May 2003. The court found, inter alia, that even if the case were to be found to concern a suicide and not a murder, a proper investigation was still necessary as it could reveal whether the crime of intentional incitement to commit suicide had been committed. There was, therefore, a need for the victim's interests to be represented during the investigation.
13.  According to the Government, on 15 and 16 July 2003 the military prosecutor adopted two decisions, discontinuing different parts of the investigation. The Government did not specify the subject of the decision dated 15 July 2003. It is unclear whether the applicant had access to that decision. The decision of 16 July 2003 concerning investigation no. 2001019048 shows that the applicant's son's autopsy was carried out on 19 December 2001 and that a report on the samples taken from the scene was drawn up on 21 December 2001. The applicant made a complaint to the court, without specifying which exact decision was concerned.
14.  On 12 May 2004 the Buiucani District Court annulled the decision of 15 July 2003 concerning criminal investigation no. 2001019048. The court relied, inter alia, on reports published in the press, according to which it appeared that general I. C. had some information concerning V. I.'s murder. According to the court, the investigators had failed to verify whether I. C. had in fact had any information relevant to the case and what the source of that information had been. The court also noted that the applicant had challenged the validity of the autopsy and that the prosecutors were concerned more with finding materials denigrating her late son than looking for the perpetrators. According to the provisions of the decision, it was subject to appeal to the Chişinău Court of Appeal. It appears that no appeal was lodged.
15.  On 30 June 2004 the military prosecutor discontinued the investigation. A challenge by the applicant to that decision was scheduled for examination by the Buiucani District Court on 9 November 2004. According to the applicant, the summons for that hearing was sent to her on 1 November 2004 but reached her only on 10 November 2004 and she thus missed the hearing. The summons stated that “the presence of the parties is mandatory”. On 9 November 2004 the court found that the applicant had been properly summoned but had failed to appear. It considered that the investigation had been exhaustive and that its discontinuation was based on the evidence in the file. According to its provisions, the decision was final.
16.  A further complaint to the Prosecutor General's Office was rejected on 23 December 2004, with reference to the decision of 9 November 2004.
17.  The applicant submitted press articles accusing an officer in V. I.'s military unit of possible involvement in his murder. The article added that a video recording had been made of the moment when V. I.'s body had been discovered, but that his relatives had been prevented from seeing it in order to verify that it had been V. I.'s body. The newspaper also described a fact apparently relied on early in the investigation, namely, that a letter had been found in V. I.'s clothes informing him that his girlfriend had decided to marry another man. However, having contacted the former girlfriend, it was revealed that she denied having ever written such a letter. As part of a telephone interview with another newspaper, a prosecutor was quoted as saying “I do not exclude that this is a suicide as a result of possible inappropriate relations. There are a number of similar cases in this battalion.”